Category Archives: Egyptian hair comb

The Old Kingdom refers to Egypt, 3000 BC, when the country reached its first peak of civilization. However, historians date this comb to a few hundred years before that, and shows Egyptian art before recorded history.

It is an ivory ceremonial funeral comb of an elite person. Horizontal rows of animal figures suggest a style that became familiar in later Egyptian art. The choice of animals was not random, since elephants, snakes, birds, a giraffe, hyenas, and cattle appear on other carved ivory objects. The elephants standing on snakes may come from African creation myths, in which these two animals figure prominently. The comb resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I would like to feature four museum combs today. The first comes from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It belonged to the King Wadj, whose name means serpent. His tomb was found near the ancient city of Abydos. He was the third King of the First Egyptian Dynasty and ruled c. 2920 BC. In the…… Continue Reading

Barbara Steinberg is the daughter of the late conductor Benjamin Steinberg, founding Artistic Director of the Symphony of the New World, the first fully integrated orchestra in America.

She has been an online community manager for 20 years, including creating the first multimedia community on the web in 1998, to managing a community of CIO's at Computerworld, to moderating online safety in massively multiplayer online games like Habbo and Moshi Monsters.

She is also a life-long collector of hair ornaments.

BarbaraAnne's Hair Comb Blog started 10 years ago because antique dealers were treating hair combs like the throwaway items of estate sales. An online movement to change this and showcase collections exhibited in museums was needed. For her work, she was invited to present with The Creative Museum.

Delightfully, her blog community has merged with the Ethnic Jewels community to add more richness and scholarship to the field of Ethnic Jewelry.

BarbaraAnne and all the kids around the world at Habbo send a message to you: Peace on Earth.